Civil servants moving to the country from traffic-clogged Dublin under the Government's decentralisation plan will be pleasantly surprised by what they find there, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, predicted today.
Speaking on RTÉ radio during his traditional post-Budget phone-in, Mr McCreevy said decentralisation would bring economic prosperity to the regions and bring new approach to policy-making which is less focused on Dublin.
Since he first mentioned decentralisation in his budget four years ago Mr McCreevy said the Government had received applications from 130 towns interested in hosting State bodies.
Mr McCreevy maintained that rural Ireland has changed economically and socially in recent years and can offer a better lifestyle to civil servants than that available in the capital.
Mr McCreevy accepted that his decision to extend tax relief on film investment favoured the well-off but the costs of the scheme estimated at €265 million were "more or less" balanced by the benefits to the Irish economy.
The Minister drew some criticism for the paltry increases in child benefit announced in the Budget. However, he promised that the last third of increases in child benefit, which were agreed under the Sustaining Progress national agreement will be paid next year and the year after.
The imposition of higher taxes on petrol while the other old reliables escaped unscathed has angered road hauliers, but the Minister said the increases brough fuel prices just above the EU average and below those in the North.
As oil prices are quoted in dollars the weakness of the US currency may offset some of the pain of the increases, Mr McCreevy said.
Mr McCreevy hinted that should the economic recovery now under way continue he may have some scope for tax cuts in future budgets. However, one area unlikely to see any ministerial generosity is Vehicle Registration Tax - which the Minister uncharacteristically predicted he would never cut.